Her heart was racing.
"Hah… hah… hah!"
She was panting, her legs were burning.
She could feel the muscles throbbing, crying out in pure agony, her lead leg, her right, was having it the worse.
"Hah…"
She passed by her trainer again for the… what was it? 10th time, no. It wasn't the twentieth, she was supposed to stop at the tenth, he didn't tell her to stop. So… she kept running.
It was a simple exercise, twenty laps around an 800 meter circuit, she was supposed to get to a certain speed and then maintain it for as long as she could so, in her trainers words, she could work on her stamina and her final sprint consistency.
It felt more like torture to be honest but who was she to say anything, she was the trainee he was the trainer, he probably knew better.
But even then did she really have to do something so… so barbaric!?
She was supposed to do 8000 meters of running with no breaks!
She was miler for the goddesses sake!
Honestly!
She could only hope tachyon senpai didn't catch wind of what her trainer had her doing, if she did… then well, she could only pray for her trainers health and safety.
After a bit more running, she finally managed to pass the finish line and her trainer called for her to stop.
With a sigh of relief she slowed down and went towards her trainer to hear the rest of the schedule, she was only halfway through with it anyway.
"Alright, those were a good ten laps, good job maintaining your speed in the later laps who knows maybe you have the potential to run in medium and long races as well!" He said with a hint of excitement at the potential prospect of her running in longer races.
"Yeah, I'm rather certain that compared to running 8000 meters anything else will be a breeze!"
"It couldn't have been that hard…"
"…Trainer."
"What! I'm pretty sure that I could do it too."
"Alright then," she said a smile growing on her face, "Feel free to show me your potential."
"You know what, I don't think I can do it actually."
"Can't or won't?"
"Can't it be both?"
"…"
"Okay fine, I can't do it, there you happy?"
"Very."
"All right then, so you got some partner running up next, I contacted a fellow trainer and he decided to enlist the help of his team.
"Oh really? I never thought you could do it trainer."
"Excuse you?"
"What, it's just that you always felt to me like the person who could never quite convince other people to help you."
"…"
He said nothing and just looked at her with a deadpan expression, she of course responded with a smile.
She scoffed lightly before speaking once more, "Anyways, what's the teams name?"
"The team's name? It's Canopus."
…
The partner running went well, it was of a significantly lower training intensity then what she had been doing earlier in the morning and they took breaks as well, it wasn't a 10 consecutive sprint races back to back with no break.
She could only assume that the reason it was so much lighter in intensity being based off the fact that the other trainer had more experience than her own.
Though there wasn't much to say about that anyway.
Anyway she was on break right now and wanted advice from her senpais.
"Hey, so senpais, do you have any advice on how to deal with runaway umamusume?"
They stopped what they were doing and looked at her, then four of them collectively looked at the sole red haired twin tailed member in the group, as she looked at them looking at her and simply sighed.
"Well, if you want my advice Reve, there is a single flaw in the great escape style, that Turbo could tell you about, but if you must know, it's that it takes a lot of stamina to pull of effectually. Though that normally only comes into play at the longer distances."
"Thank you Nature-senpai! But I still have one last question about it, if you wouldn't mind answering?"
"I have no problem answering, i just think that I shouldn't be the one to explain it to you," she sighed and shrugged her arms, "But ask away."
"Thank you Nature-senpai!"
"It's no issue, really."
"Ok, so… if the great escapes biggest weakness is the consumption of stamina and distance, then what should I do, in my next race? My main rival does the great escape and it's only a mile race… what should I do?"
"I see," she nodded her head, "that's why you're asking, you're not sure how you're going to beat your rival."
"Yes."
"If it's possible," another member of the group, an uma with orange short cut hair, Ikuno Dictus started, "Could we know this rivals name?"
"Ah, yes of course Dictus-Senpai! Her name is Hope for Tomorrow."
"Isn't that the new spica member?" she heard one of them whisper in the background.
"I see," Nature started nodding her head, "I've seen some of her races, and all I can tell you to do, is hope that you start in a gate close to her and try to block her, get her to have a late start, stop her from getting the leading position, basically you should try to surprises her as much as possible."
"I see… I see, but how do I get her to have a late start?"
"Ah that? Well, in my experience muttering loudly enough for the other person to hear works great, it throws of their rhythm, their balance, almost everything!"
She nodded her head enthusiastically after hearing the advice, she didn't know how she'd pull it off in a race, but she'd find a way that's for sure.
...
The rest of the day went well, she practiced at her best, and she even got to the cafetaria before the two infamous fatties of tracen academy got there first.
So her lunch was secured.
She even managed to find time out of her day to talk to Tachyon-Senpai!
Though, her senpai did try to give her some concoctions that she swore would help with the race and with recovery after the matter, which she kindly refused.
All in all, it was a good day.
The dread of the Hanshin juvenile fillies was eased away, even if only a month and a half remained until the race.
—————————————————
AN
Hope you guys liked the chapter, not much to say except that I have hid little tidbits of lore in this chapter, that may or may not have to do with Reve d'Essor's actual carreer.
Ps. Her sire is Agnes Tachyon, that's why she actually appeared at the end of the chapter and not as somebody who drags her roommate to their dorm and somebody who was woken up by Hope's mindless screaming.
I'm probably going to have Reve run with the default G1 outfit for every uma, if you know her IRL race record, there is a reason for it. But she will get a G1 outfit if I ever decide to make Hope run in the queen Elizabeth stakes before the the japan cup… it would… AH, nevermind I won't continue that thought, it would be spoilers after all…
Anyway, not much to say, but team Canopus made their appearance, did I do Nature properly?
I hope so, hell, I hope I did everyone properly.
Anyway, this is Greek Antielos,
Signing off.